JobKeeper Part 5 – Important Dates and Notifications required under JobKeeper

As discussed in previous articles in order to claim the JobKeeper payments there are 5 critical notifications and reporting items.  We recommend all employers take note of these important obligations.

1. Employer Eligibility – Notification to the Commissioner.  

What: When the employer has determined that it is an eligible employer it must notify the Commissioner.

When: Fortnights 1 and 2 – by 30 April 2020.  Fortnights 3 to 13 at the end of relevant fortnight.

Period	Start Date	End Date
01	30 March 2020	12 April 2020
02	13 April 2020	26 April 2020
03	27 April 2020	10 May 2020
04	11 May 2020	24 May 2020
05	25 May 2020	07 June 2020
06	08 June 2020	21 June 2020
07	22 June 2020	05 July 2020
08	06 July 2020	19 July 2020
09	20 July 2020	02 August 2020
10	03 August 2020	16 August 2020
11	17 August 2020	30 August 2020
12	31 August 2020	13 September 2020
13	14 September 2020	27 September 2020

 

How: Via Business Portal https://bp.ato.gov.au/ using My Gov ID if the employer is completing this themselves or via Tax Agent Portal if we are completing this on your behalf. This notification will be available from 20 April.

2. Monthly Reporting of Actual and Projected GST Turnover – Notification to the Commissioner 

What: Each eligible employer that is entitled to a JobKeeper payment must notify the Commissioner

• their GST turnover for the month just completed plus

• their projected GST Turnover for the current month
• The number of eligible employees

For example, for the month of April the employer must report the actual GST Turnover for April and the projected GST turnover for May.

When:  Within 7 days of the end of the calendar month.  Note this is the trigger for the payment, no payment will be made until this report is submitted.

Month	Reporting Date
April 2020	7 May 2020
May 2020	7 June 2020
June 2020	7 July 2020
July 2020	7 August 2020
August 2020	7 September 2020
September 2020	7 October 2020

 

How: Via Business Portal https://bp.ato.gov.au/ using My Gov ID if the employer is completing this themselves or via  Tax Agent Portal if we are completing this on your behalf.   This notification will be available from 20 April onwards.

3. Employee Notification to the Employer 

What: Each eligible employee must give their employer a notification that they are eligible to be included in the JobKeeper scheme.

When: We recommend all employers obtain this notification before paying their employees a JobKeeper payment.

How: The employee must complete the notification and return it to the employer. https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedfiles/content/cr/d1aab7f2-fbe8-44b8-9ec1-4885ded1088e.pdf.  The ATO has provided concession to employers to receive this notification in a different format.  https://www.ato.gov.au/General/JobKeeper-Payment/In-detail/Creating-your-own-employee-nomination-notice/

This form is not required to be submitted to the ATO but is required to be kept by the employer for five years.

4. Employer notification of employees to Commissioner 

What: The employer must give the Commissioner the details of each eligible employee and information about the entitlement to the JobKeeper program.

When: This is required by the end of each fortnight.  For the first two fortnights, there will be an extension until 30 April 2020.

How: There will be 3 methods available for this;

• Either by the ATO Business portal or Tax Agent Portal as in item 1, or
• Single Touch Payroll (STP) system. Using specific codes being established for this purpose.
• File Upload

Please note that the ATO has a strong preference for business to use the STP system, and this is likely to be the best way to ensure smooth processing directly to the ATO. Payroll systems are presently being modified to accommodate this. If you need assistance please don’t hesitate to ask.

5. Employer notification to employee 

What: The employer must give the employee the details provided to the Commissioner in item 4 above.

When: The information must be provided within 7 days of the notification within item 4 above.

How: We believe that most of the information will be provided to the employee on their payslip.  Alternatively, a letter can be provided to each employee and we will provide a sample letter when more information is available.

What are the on-going notification requirements? 

• Once the employer has notified the Commissioner in Item 1 and 4, it will not need to continue to update the Commissioner on these items unless they are no longer eligible – eg cease business, or an employee is terminated or no longer eligible.
• Monthly reporting in item 2 will be on-going throughout the scheme.
• The employee notification in item 3 only needs to be done once, unless the employee become ineligible.
• The payroll information in step 5 will continue to be provided through the payroll system payslips.

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As you can see there is quite of lot of administrative work that is required to continue to be eligible for the JobKeeper payments. We will be in contact with each of our clients to work with you to agree who will be responsible for each notification step above.

These new timelines have significantly increased our workload and we request patience from clients while we implement these new reporting mechanisms.

Please contact us with any questions regarding the above timelines and notifications.

 

Date published: 20 April 2020